In Europe, Nixon’s most enthusiastic ally in this respect was West Germany, which then hosted more than three hundred thousand U.S. troops. In more recent decades the focus has shifted to Asia, particularly the central banks of countries like Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea—again, all U.S. military protectorates. In addition, the global status of the dollar is reinforced by the fact that it is, again since 1971, the only currency used to buy and sell petroleum, with any attempt by OPEC countries to begin trading in any currency stubbornly resisted by OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Kuwait—also
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Important note! This argument seems more plausible - though I find it interesting in the current context that governments are more willing to dump US debt in response to: 1) Trump's policy of threatening to no longer protect its former allies (Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, etc.) - in effect ending the "protectorate" status of these nations, and 2) ballooning US government debt to GDP - that is, deficits that were supposedly run to primarily finance wars are now causing the countries that were occupied by the US to dump their US debts?
Also among the list given by the author of largest foreign owners of US debt, China is notably missing - which is the second largest foreign holder of US public debt. And noone would call China a US protectorate.
